D&D 5th Edition: the fifth edition of the discussion thread

[Knaight]

So in the current draft, there are actually basically three things you need to choose to determine your character's combat build: class, sub-class, and specialty. In some ways, I actually think this has the potential to make for an elegant game, if it's done right. For example, if a Fighter with the right Fighting Style and Specialty can make an excellent Warlord, Swashbuckler, etc., without a need for separate classes for those archetypes. On the other hand, the three-wide design space kind of shoots WotC's stated goal of super-duper-simple character creation for newbies in the foot.

Sub Class, Background, and Specialty are all optional mechanics. I'm actually fine with this, as it is a fairly elegant way to allow customization of complexity (which is sorely lacking elsewhere, such as in the equipment system, but whatever). That said, you don't appear to gain anything by not taking a Sub Class, Background, or Specialty, which undercuts the design goal of mixing detailed characters with not detailed characters within a class.